Thoughtful and Impressive

The new episode of the From the Fabricator podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to, or, for a few of you, watch. This time around, I have two people I don’t know very well, so it was a lot of fun to get to know these guys.

First up was Hugo Ramirez of Adler Window. I stumbled onto Hugo via his incredible LinkedIn feed and immediately knew I wanted him on the pod. And he did not disappoint! Very thoughtful guy who has had a pretty amazing career and now is in the thick of it all in New York. We covered a ton of items, including the cost of “waiting,” IIBEC, NY LL 97, and learning how to ski under serious pressure. Good stuff!

Then I got with Mike O’Neal of Chesapeake Glazing. I have only met Mike once, and it was a super quick hello at BEC. So this was a great opportunity to learn more. Mike falls into the American Dream category, working his way up from the very bottom and entry into the glass world, all the way to President of an extremely impressive organization. It was a great talk on recruiting, mental health, hot products, and more. Just a super cool guy for sure. Truly, it’s fun to bring voices into our space that aren’t heard as much as others!

Thank you for checking it out! Watch here or listen here.

Elsewhere…

Inside the Spec podcast

While we’re on podcast duty, I was lucky enough to be asked to appear on the “Inside the Spec” podcast hosted by the wildly talented duo of Vardan Mehta (Acelab) and Megan Kacvinsky (Point to Point). They are great interviewers and pulled things from me I did not expect to cover, specifically diving into manufacturing and the keys to doing it all well. Check it out and add it to your podcast rotation. They’ve had a pretty cool range of guests on!

Construction data

Everyone is probably tired of forecasts and economic news, especially since it changes so quickly in some areas. FMI put out a teaser for its upcoming Q4 release with the latest numbers from the Nonresidential Construction Index (NRCI) and the Civil Construction Index (CICI). Unfortunately, both weren’t great. The NRCI dropped to 51.7, down from 55.1, but it's still flat with break-even, which is kind of a win. The CICI dropped to 49.4, its lowest reading since Q3 of 2022. Not much you can say or really spin. And I’m not touching the latest Dodge news. Just a brutal landscape out there, but I’ll continue to search for the silver lining.

GlassBuild notes

A couple of leftover GlassBuild notes. First, it was a huge honor to host the Family Business session and to award David, Richard, and Steven Balik of GGI for their incredible longevity in the business. They have done it right and continue to do it right. Overall, I was pretty excited to see so many in the audience, and to hear their stories and their desire to keep going and evolving in our currently crazy space. All refreshing!

Post-show rundown

Also, last week, I had my post-show rundown, and I missed mentioning a ton of people. I am sorry. I will right one wrong, though, a thanks to Branden Anderson and Jennifer Figueroa of BizDog. These folks came into our industry a few years ago with a service that many did not know existed, and they committed themselves to supporting our world. Tons of non-industry people come in, try for a bit, and then disappear. These folks did not. They have become part of our industry fabric. And you know me with branding and swag, great logo and gear, so that too makes our connection with them all the better! Also, I had written this before Branden posted about the show and my setup at the floor entrance, which was a hoot!

TV recommendation

Last this week… I mention this at the end of the latest podcast when I talk about shows to watch, but I wanted to throw it out here. Netflix. “Death of a Pastor's Wife” – it is one of the most bonkers mini-series I’ve ever watched. Just so much head shaking material over three episodes I think I needed a chiropractor to fix my neck. Just wild.